Joe Farnsworth & Sarah Hanahan Quartet
For this gig, the audience had to brave bad weather and multiple road closures. Even Joe Farnsworth nearly got lost, having gone for a run beforehand in the country lanes near the club. He praised the friendly locals who had guided him back to the right path.
Sarah Hanahan is a graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, so it was appropriate that the quartet started with the Jackie McLean tune Minor March. A long introduction featured Joe Farnsworth building up an ominous-sounding drum riff; then Sarah joined in with the angular melody. Her solo displayed a powerful attack and forceful tone, with the McLean influence occasionally showing in cascades of whole-note lines.
This was followed by the (presumably) impromptu Blues For Dorking, with Joe supplying a rock-solid Art Blakey-style backbeat and blues-drenched solos all round. Will Barry played some great two-handed piano in the classic style. Joe Farnsworth praised Will Sach’s bass playing, and explained that for a drummer, finding the right bassist to lock in with rhythmically makes all the difference to the group sound.
Body And Soul showed the more sensitive side of Sarah’s playing. She displayed a full-bodied sound and a way of vocalising her phrases which had an old-school feel to it. On Lady Be Good, guest clarinettist Adrian Cox sat in and the whole band let rip in a glorious swing romp, the back-and-forth between Sarah’s alto and Adrian’s hot clarinet being especially exciting.
Charlie Parker’s Confirmation allowed Sarah to show off her blistering bebop technique, while Satin Doll featured an unusual reharmonised ascending chord sequence. On this tune, just to make things harder, Joe Farnsworth played games with the band by gradually speeding up the tempo to a level which put everyone to the test.
Somewhere Over The Rainbow featured Adrian Cox again, playing liquid-sounding clarinet and blending with Sarah Hanahan’s equally warm-toned sax. The concert closed with Duke Ellington’s C-Jam Blues, featuring hard-hitting solos all round.
Joe Farnsworth & Sarah Hanahan Quartet, Watermill Jazz Club, Betchworth Park Golf Club, Dorking, 9 July 2024. Sarah Hanahan (as); Will Barry (p); Will Sach (b); Joe Farnsworth (d).
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Anaïs Reno with the Pete Malinverni Trio
The concert started with piano, bass and drums only, playing Pete Malinverni’s arrangement of the song Cool, from West Side Story.
Anais Reno joined the trio and demonstrated her warm, clear vocal tone on some old standards including It’s De-Lovely and You Go To My Head. Considering she is only 20, her voice showed a remarkably mature sound, and her confident command of the songs held the audience’s attention throughout.
She also sang the instrumental standards Pannonica and Whisper Not, to which lyrics have been added. On a couple of tunes she performed some scat singing, but more often she repeated the lyrics for a second chorus while embellishing and improvising around the melody. On Kiss and Run, Anais sang the initial verse unaccompanied, with perfect intonation (as revealed when the trio joined in), which is no mean feat.
Pete Malinverni’s piano arrangements were carefully crafted to fit the dynamics of the vocal lines, but he also played some quite forceful solos. Dave Green and Steve Brown played impeccably as always.
Anais sang two of her own songs – The Divine One, and Sad Little Swan (inspired by the film Black Swan). These were very effective, both melodically and lyrically. She made some interesting choices of material, including Moonchild/Sunchild (based on a King Crimson song), and concluded with Billy Joel’s And So It Goes.
Anaïs Reno with the Pete Malinverni Trio, Watermill Jazz Club, 16 July 2024. Anaïs Reno (v); Pete Malinverni (p); Dave Green (b); Steve Brown (d).
